Just a Kid
by Potato Tree
Summary: In this story we go back in time to where Loki is only a child wandering the long hallways of the palace he lives in. His mother wants to see him as a child a bit longer before he starts to grow up, so she gets him a play mate. A young girl from another realm who is bent on having fun, being demanding, and being mischievous, where did you think Loki got it from?
1. Chapter 1

**So as I was writing my other Loki story I had an idea for a young Loki story, one that explained how he got so mischievous and crafty. So here it is, more of a fun sort of story rather than a deep romance type. Hope you enjoy.**

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It was a cold morning Loki and Thor were being led towards one of the dining rooms by their mother; she had gotten them out of bed early in order to show them something she hoped that they would like, she'd gotten one for each of them.

Growing up in a palace as princes was fun, for the most part, but of course there was rivalry, which made it hard for one prince to play with the other as merely children, because there was always someone watching. Thor got along with Loki well enough and vice versa but their mother wished she could see them smiling as brightly as the children she saw outside the palace.

"Mother, what are you giving us?" Thor asked with a grin on his face. His arrogance already seemed to be growing, even as young as he was, they both looked to be only about eight or nine, and already the weight on the throne was bearing down on them. That was something that their mother did not want, could they not be kids for a little bit longer?

"You will see," she said with a smile.

Finally they came to where their mother had been leading them, a more secluded area of the castle, she opened the doors to a small dining table where two kids were seated, eating slowly. Upon their arrival both of the children stopped what they were doing and got off the table, bowing lowly to Thor, Loki, and their mother.

"That is fine," she told them gently.

The children raised their heads; you could now see them pretty clearly.

"I've gotten playmates for you," she said excitedly with a giggle.

Loki and Thor looked over to the other two children, one of them was a boy, and the other a girl, both looked to be of a different place.

The boy had shining silver hair and eyes that seemed as black as night, standing about as tall as Thor, with a proud, but obedient stance. The clothes he worse were strange to the two young princes, it was nothing that they would ever consider wearing, upon closer inspection they could see silver scales dotting across the boy's skin in a few places. It also seemed that his teeth were different from the others, sharp like a dragons, he could probably eat pretty much anything.

"Thor you can have Idin," their mother said pointing towards the boy. "Loki you have Pari," she said looking over at the girl happily.

Loki looked at Pari now; she was shorter, and obviously younger than Loki, though the look in her eyes showed knowledge beyond her years. Her hair seemed as if a fire was living within it, red, yellow, and orange, mixed together like a true fire, it seemed to move as if it were flames dancing in the air. She had eyes to match the wild hair on her head, deep red, with flecks of gold that shined in the light; she too wore something that the princes would not even consider clothing. A dress made of fallen leaves of the brightest color; she looked at them like a cat might look at its master, respectful, but barely.

The way she looked at them suggested that she had been taken against her will, or perhaps abandoned and picked up out of pity, which is exactly what the Queen had done, but there was something else in her eyes that Loki looked at hesitantly. They seemed to glimmer with a slight bit of mischief, as if she had plans for something; she gave him a small smirk for a second before it vanished from her face.

"I have other business to attend to, get your friends some new clothes and have some fun today," she said before walking away with a smile.

Walking up to their new playmates cautiously, Thor was the first to say anything.

"Hi my name's Thor, this is my brother Loki, some day I'm going to be king," he said to both of the other kids. "We will be good friends Idin," he patting the boy on the back.

"If that is what you wish," Idin said in a smooth voice. The boy was definitely not of Asgard, the way he spoke and look suggested so very strongly, when he spoke it sounded as if there was a gentle breeze in the room. He seemed to be well behaved, something that Thor liked, but wished to break him of soon.

"Of course," Thor said excited. He then told Idin to follow him as he ran out of the room excited; he had to get the boy some proper clothing.

This left Pari and Loki alone in the room.

"My name is Loki," Loki said trying to mimic Thor as he had been successful it seemed.

"I know," Pari said looking at him calmly. Unlike Idin's voice hers sounded breathless and warm, in fact when he got nearer to her the air did seem to be a bit more welcoming and warm compared to the rest of the room, as if she were emitting her own heat.

"Follow me, you need new clothes," Loki said trying to sound like he was in charge. In all truth he didn't know what to say to the girl, he'd only ever had his brother as company, and Thor always did most of the talking, he didn't know how to speak to strangers much.

"But I like my clothes," she said getting defensive suddenly.

"You need new clothes," Loki said again. Had she not heard him? When he spoke usually people did what he said, he was a prince after all.

The girl looked at him slightly disappointed, but he didn't know why. She looked away from him with defiance.

"Pari, you will come with me," he said angrily, demanding that she follow him. With a small laugh Pari turned back to him with a smile, her hair seemed to jump with new energy.

"That sounded good, you will need that anger later in life if you want to go far," she said, her eyes lighting up with energy. "I will follow, little king," she said giving him a small bow. She understood her position, she was just a companion for the prince, nothing more than a stolen relic from her homeland, but son something be stolen if it was cast out?

It didn't matter to her, if she was chosen to be the friend of a prince the least she could do was have fun, and possible help him develop some skills that he would need as a king, for Pari had knowledge beyond her years. Her brother had been in the same predicament before.

Loki looked at the girl with a bit of surprise, had she just called him little king? That meant that she knew of the situation between him and Thor. Feeling a bit of pride seep into him he smiled triumphantly, being called a king was something that he liked; perhaps this girl would be okay as a companion.

Leading them down the hallway Loki caught sight of Thor, who seemed quite content to show Idin how great he was at fighting, though he was just a child bearing the name prince Idin seemed happy to praise him. Would Pari do the same for Loki? That was something Loki was wondering.

"She needs new clothes," Loki said showing Pari to one of the servants. The women took a questioning glance at Pari before looking back at Loki and bowing, taking Pari into the room and getting her some new clothes.

When Pari came out she was wearing a silky yellow dress instead of the leaves that he had met her in, now she looked like a proper Asgardian child.

"So are we going to play?" She questioned with a blank stare.

"Well-," Loki started to say something before she interrupted him.

"I know a game we can play," she said grabbing him by the hand and pulling him after her. They went to one of the many libraries that were located in the palace, Loki had to tell her which room was which, but they got there, hiding from guards all along the way. Loki tried to explain that they didn't have to hide from them, that he was allowed to walk around freely, but Pari insisted upon the hiding, she said it was more fun that way.

It was fun, by the time they got to the library Loki and Pari were already laughing together, there was something about her having fun that was contagious to him, and he didn't think that the girl was going to be any fun at all, but he was wrong. Even though they had just met it was like they had been friends for a long time.

"Okay, I used to play this game with my brother, I'll hide, and you try to find me," she said with a smile. Loki nodded, it sounded easy enough. "Close your eyes and count to twenty," she put her warm hands over his eyes gently.

Loki smiled, this would be easy. When he finished counting it took him about five minutes to find her, with a laugh she explained that he'd walked past her a few times. At first he was angry that she'd laugh at him, but she patted him on the shoulder and said that it had taken her brother an hour once, and he felt better after that. Now it was his turn to hide, so Pari counted as Loki ran to hide behind a couch that was a little ways away from the wall, when he heard that she was done counting he held his breath to be as quiet as he could.

"Found you," Pari said looking behind to couch with a smile and a laugh. He frowned at her unhappily.

"You cheated didn't you?" He accused. Since he was a prince most of the time whoever he played with let him win, so he wasn't used to losing, his mother had spoiled him.

"Maybe if you didn't breathe so loud I wouldn't have found you," she laughed poking him in the stomach playfully.

"I want to hide again," he stated looking at her sternly.

"Go ahead," she smiled at him. She was actually having fun, the house she grew up in was all about rules and training, with this little king she could just have fun.

So they played this strange game of hiding and finding for the rest of the day, you know how kids are, they never seem to tire of something that's fun, so why should this be any different. At one point during their game Pari and Loki crashed into a pile of books, knocking them over Loki was surprised when she said to just leave them there and not tell anyone. Pari acted way differently then he would ever dare to, and he liked it.

"Mother," Loki called out to his mom from down the hallway. His mom turned around and smile when he saw the two of them walking together, but Loki was the only one who seemed keen on running up to her quickly.

"Loki, how is Pari, are you satisfied with her?" She questioned with a soft voice. Loki nodded to which his mother smiled at him, Idin was great for Thor and Pari great for Loki, she'd made good decisions.

"Where does Pari sleep?" He asked looking back at Pari with a nod.

"Well she has a room right across from you, of course," she said patting him on the head.

"Thank you mother," he said before taking Pari's hand and running off towards his room and hers.

First Loki took Parito his room, to show her where he lived, he wanted to impress her mostly, but that seemed almost impossible, the girl looked at everything like she'd seen it a million times before. Loki didn't care, she had her own way of doing things, and she wasn't afraid of him being a prince, and he liked that about her.

"I like you Little King,I think we'll be great friends," Pari said with a cheerful grin. Loki grinned as well, nodding in agreement he showed her the outside of his room, a balcony overlooking the rest of Asgard. Pari looked across everything in shock.

"Do you like it here?" He asked her cautiously.

"Only because I have a friend," she said happily. They looked out around them a little longer before Pari went to her room, right away she came back and told him that it looked awesome, then she went back and fell asleep.

Meanwhile Loki sat in his room thinking about his new friend, she was definitely fun to be with, faintly he wondered what Thor's friend was like, certainly not as good as Pari.

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**I had already written this one while I was writing my other story, so it's been hiding in my saved documents for a week or so, tell me what you think please! Review box and such.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Suddenly someone reviewed this story, after a long time of it lying dormant, and it sparked some new idea's into my brain, so here's a new chapter, and I'm going to write a new one and have it up soon.**

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Peeking their heads around the corner silently Pari and Loki smirked towards each other when they say that someone was approaching their new trap. It was a simple thing; someone had to walk through a thin piece of string that would set off a bucket of water hanging above the person's head. They would laugh as the water was dumped onto the unsuspecting passerby and then run off like the mischievous little kids they were.

It had already been three months since Pari and Idin had been introduced to the two princes, Idin and Thor were good friends when it came to fighting and pretending they were heroes, but other than that it seemed as though they had little in common. Thor was always happy just dragging the child along with him regardless of what Idin thought or wanted to do at the moment, and Idin never complained, for he had no place to.

As for Pari and Loki it seemed as if they were inseparable, if Loki was spotted somewhere in the palace Pari was not far away from him, even during the night when Pari and Loki were in different rooms, it seemed as if they were planning something.

If Pari had done anything for Loki it was the way she had changed his behavior, he'd been a little tricky and played a prank or two before the girl came along, but now that she was here. They played pranks almost every day, at first it had been annoying to the servants and guards, but they got used to it and almost reveled in the fact that they could catch them in the act. They were both still kids so their reaction to being caught was always comical.

For now they were just waiting for someone to walk through the line so they could laugh and run away. Finally it looked as if someone was going towards the trap, Pari and Loki peeked back around the corner to come face to face with a guard they had recently come to call Grumpy. He was the one that always caught them when they made a new prank, at first it was fun, but now it was starting to get annoying.

"Run," Pari whispered before grabbing Loki's hand and turning to dash off down the hall. Letting a laugh escape his lips Loki ran off down the hall glancing over his shoulder to see that Grumpy was following close behind.

The guard was tall, clad in armor, and set with a sword, one would think that would slow the man down but it did anything but that, he always seemed to catch them in a matter of seconds.

"We're going to get scolded again," Loki groaned remembering how his mother had pulled on his ear the last time they got caught. That just happened to be yesterday, his ear started to ache from the memory.

"Run faster," Pari said with a laugh.

It didn't matter Grumpy reached out and grabbed Loki by the shoulder the second they tried to turn the corner, but something strange happened at that moment. There was a small glimmer of gold light before Loki seemed to disappear from Grumpy's grasp and appear a few feet in front of them.

Pari looked at him with wide eyes before her eyes flared up brightly for a moment. Loki gasped when he suddenly jumped to a different place in the hallway, turning around to look at Pari he was surprised to see that her eyes seemed to be glowing. It almost looked like there was a fire glowing in her eyes, much like the way her hair looked he almost couldn't stop looking at what was burning in front of him. In a second the glow in her eyes was gone and she merely laughed and ran up to him while Grumpy seemed at a loss for words.

"That was awesome! What did you do?" She asked looking up into his eyes.

"I don't know," he said staring back at the spot he had been a few moments ago.

"Okay," she muttered getting closer to him. "Let's run again," she giggled before taking his hand again. Quickly they turned the corner and ducked through a smaller window and into the garden to vanish into a maze of bushes and leaves.

Once they were out of sight from anyone and they were sure that Grumpy was not going to find them Pari let go of Loki and turned to look at him with an odd look on her face.

"What was that?" Loki asked trying to redo what he had accomplished accidentally.

"Don't ask me, try to do it again," she said with excitement in her eyes.

Suddenly there was a laugh from across the garden, the both of them knew the voice by now and looked at each other with a small frown.

"Try going over to that bench," she said letting her eyes glow again.

Feeling his eyes burn Loki tried to remember what he had been thinking when he'd gotten away from Grumpy, concentrating as best he could Loki didn't notice that Pari's eyes had begun to glow brightly again.

This was something Pari had not seen before, on her own planet her people had their own powers, and some of them were more powerful than others were, but she had never seen a power like this before. It interested her and made her wonder slightly when her power would start to ignite. Would she have a power like her brother who could fly in a blanket of flames, like her mother who could heal, or would she have a power that was all her own.

Of course there was the question of whether or not Pari would be allowed to live past a certain age, as far as she knew there was no one of her race on Asgard. What would happen to her when she started to burn?

"Brother!" A voice tore Loki from his concentration abruptly. Suddenly there was a glimmer of gold around his eyes; darkness enveloped him before Pari vanished from his sight.

Feeling a bit of weightlessness Loki felt himself fall, landing not a second later in water he splashed and sputtered trying to figure out what exactly had happened to him. A second ago he'd been focusing on that same feeling of unknown that had happened with Grumpy, then Thor had called out for him and now he was here.

For a moment Loki looked around frantically, he was still in the garden, but there was no one there with him, and it frightened him slightly. Would someone call out for him? Was someone already looking for him?

Listening for someone Loki's first thought went out towards Thor, they were brothers after all, would he be the first to call his name?

Still no one called out to him, and a new emotion rose in his throat, perhaps it was anger, a bit of rage that no one seemed to care for him, sadness, and pain.

"Loki!" Someone called out for him. Breaking him away from his new thoughts and emotions Loki looked around for any sign that someone was looking for him. "Loki!" The voice called again, he could hear the desperation that laced through the voice. It was Pari's voice.

"Brother!" Thor's voice came faintly through the bushes.

It was a nice feeling, knowing that someone was looking for you, knowing that your one and only friend in the palace was searching for you in a maze that she did not know at all.

"Pari, I'm in the middle of the maze!" He shouted taking small sloshing steps out of the fountain.

"I don't know where that is!" She shouted back at him angrily. Loki froze after hearing her say that, she sounded different when she was angry, he'd never heard that tone in her voice before.

Finally after yelling at each other a few more times Pari met up with Loki half way through the maze to which Pari tackled Loki to the ground and pulled on his cheeks angrily.

"Ow, hey stop it," he mumbled trying to push her off him.

"That was scary, don't do that again," she said in a small voice that made Loki stop and look into her eyes.

"Are you crying?" Loki said with an awkward chuckle in his voice. He didn't know what to do with Pari, she had never shown this type of emotion before, and she'd never been vulnerable in front of him.

"My father's brother disappeared before my eyes, he never came back," she said before getting off of him and running back through the maze.

Loki sat on the ground until Thor came over to him with Idin close behind, but Loki couldn't help but remember the look that Pari had given him before she ran off.

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**Okay, these chapters are going to be a little shorter than normal because I'm trying to get the storyline going, I actually have an idea of where this story is going now. Isn't that great!**

**Back to writing, happy late Christmas, review if you want.  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Another chapter! I bet some of my other readers wished I would write a new chapter to a different story...but oh well, right now I have ideas for this story, so I'm going to write this story! Enjoy.**

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It was later that day that Loki's mother approached him and asked what was wrong, she'd heard about the little event that had happened in the garden and came to comfort Loki if he needed something like that. When she approached him the child ran towards her with a serious look on his face, as if he had been thinking something over and finally came to a conclusion about something.

"Mother I have a question," he said with a bit of urgency in his voice.

She was a bit surprised to say the least; her son had never looked this serious about anything.

"What is it dear?" She asked kindly.

"Pari was crying, she said that her father's brother disappeared and never came back, but I don't understand, why was she crying? She was angry at me too, why is that?" He asked looking up at his mother with curious eyes.

Knowing that Loki had used a bit of magic to disappear into the garden his mother knew a bit of how the girl must have been feeling, especially if her uncle had disappeared right in front of her eyes and never returned. Seeing Loki disappear must have terrified her.

There was also the question of whether or not Pari missed her homeland, but why would she when Pari had been found almost literally on the side of the road when Loki's mother had picked her up. What had happened to the girl's family?

"Loki," his mother said with a gentle voice. She then pulled him over to a bench that sat next to a window and put him next to her in the middle of it.

"When you lose someone, it hurts more than anyone can imagine," she muttered soothingly.

"More than falling down the stairs?" He questioned remembering when Thor had pushed him down the terrible tortures once.

"No, it's different than that," she said trying to think of something she could use as an example. "Remember when you lost Talm when you were younger?" She said recalling the time when Loki had lost his pet in the garden once.

"I thought he was gone forever," the boy said frowning at the memory.

"How would you feel if I or your father were to disappear and never return?" She questioned, watching as the boy frowned deeply and furrowed his brows.

"I'd be sad, are you going somewhere?" He asked a bit suspicious all of a sudden.

"No dear," she reassured him. "Pari's uncle disappeared, and he never came back, he's gone. She must have gone through so much pain and loneliness, it would make sense as to why she was so frantic when you disappeared," she said patting his shoulder.

"What do you mean?" Loki asked when only some of the things she said registered into his mind.

"She thought that you had disappeared, just like her uncle did, she thought you were gone," she explained looking down into his green eyes.

"So she was afraid that I left her?" He asked with eyes that seemed to harden in the light.

"Yes," his mother smiled. Finally her understood what the girl felt when her only friend had disappeared right before her eyes. "She must really love you," she said not knowing that those words would twist Loki's thoughts around like a growing vine.

It was then that Loki's mother pushed him off on his way, telling him to go cheer Pari up because it sounded like she needed it at the moment.

O3o3o3o3o3o3o3o3o3o3o3o3o3o3 o3o3o3o3o3O

Pari was in her room, sitting on the balcony stared at the sky with a bit of an emotionless face.

Laron was her father's brother, he had short hair that waved like fire, like all the royals of their race, the difference between him and Pari's father were the dark blue eyes that seemed to sink into his face. He had always been kind to Pari, almost like another father to her, except that he was nicer, and didn't order her around like her real father did. One day they were talking about how Laron was careless, how he was always causing trouble for Pari's father and mother.

Laron grew angry with his brother and words were exchanged that shouldn't have been said, needless, hurtful words that were aimed at the heart. They were angry at each other, Pari didn't know what exactly happened, she was peeking in through a crack in the door, like any mischievous little kid.

Finally Laron shouted at her father, promising that they wouldn't see the likes of him anytime soon he started to burn brightly. It was his power, to teleport, to disappear; it was just that Pari had never seen him use it before, only later did she find out that it was natural for him.

All Pari saw from her little hiding spot was Laron disappear in a feverish red flame, and she never saw him again. Her father said that Laron had merely gone on a trip, though she could see the hesitation and bitterness in his eyes as he spoke of his brother.

Did Laron not care about her enough to even say goodbye to her?

When she saw Loki disappear the first time it was exciting, because he only moved a few feet in front of her, but when he vanished right in front of her and didn't reappear again she was taken back to that one day that Laron left. Then she'd found him and felt anger and relief flood over her, he was smiling as if nothing happened when she had turned into a wreck.

It was a complex feeling for someone of her age to go through, but Pari had been through many things in the span of her short life, and she was supposed to live a lot longer. Her father had once said that she had the mind of a grown woman, and that her husband would have a hard time taming her, not that Pari knew what that meant but it certainly gave all the adults something to laugh about.

But she had been angry to see that Loki was not as scared or as worried as she was, and she was upset with herself for losing as much control as she had. So she ran away from him.

"Pari?" A soft voice called at her door. She was expecting Loki but it sounded more like Thor's young arrogant voice than Loki's hesitantly questionable one.

"What do you want Thor?" She asked a little bitterly. She had discovered almost immediately that Thor could be spoken to a little brashly and he wouldn't mind at all, that he treated women and girls as top priority, even though he was a prince.

"I brought you something, can I come in?" He asked flailing his small hands against the door. This made Pari sigh, he was always so forceful and blunt about what he wanted, which Pari had to admit she admired. It was something that Loki seemed to be lacking in.

"You can come in," she shouted back at him while walking back into her room.

He entered her room with a triumphant smile on his face holding something in his hand with his fist closed gently around it, Idin was nowhere to be seen.

"What is it?" she asked bored.

"You have to smile first," he said with a playful look on his face. She frowned at him right away before he poked at her stomach, which he knew that she hated. She narrowed her eyes at him threateningly, as if to warn him to stop what he was doing before something happened. So he poked her again and again until she was trying her best to fend off his hand from her sides.

"Stop it," she muttered angrily while taking a step away from him. When he didn't stop Pari joined in on the fight and started to poke him back, letting out a laugh before she smiled brightly at his feeble attempts to ward her off.

"I did it," he yelled triumphantly. "Here you go," he murmured opening his fist to drop a crumpled flower into her hands. She looked at it for a second before looking back up at him to see that he was smiling his usual arrogant smile.

"Thanks Thor," she said poking him in the stomach before running off without him. She then ran back to him and grabbed his hand, pulling him with her she spotted Loki running down the hall towards her. When he saw them he froze slightly, wondering why they were together at all, Thor had his own friend he didn't need Pari, she belonged to him!

"Loki!" She called out to him with a laugh in her voice. Thor had reminded her that her feelings were not something to be showed to the world, how he had showed her that was a little complicated as she did not quite understand it herself. But she would not allow her friends to see her hurt anymore; she would not show them her deepest emotions ever again.

Grabbing Loki's hand with her other free hand she pulled the both of them towards the garden so they could play in the maze.

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**It got a little more emotional didn't it? you know a little bit more about Pari now, get used to her, because if you plan on reading this story until the end you'll be seeing quite a bit of her. Anyway, back to writing, I want to get to the next part of this story already!**

**Thanks for reading.  
**


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